The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for reducing first copy out (FCO) times for printing documentation and specifically to a method and apparatus that uses uniqueness identifiers to reduce FCO times.
As demand for printing speed increases, manufacturers are having to look beyond the standard speed-increasing mechanisms such as faster machines, wider bandwidths, and process caching.
Faster printer speeds and faster data transfer methods, as mentioned above, can significantly increase the speed of the printing process. However, these solutions are often costly to implement. Also, as the industry reaches maximum speeds, creative solutions will be needed to satisfy the need for increasing the printing process speeds.
One time-consuming part of the printing process is the time it takes to render or define the content of a predetermined area. Users often see this rendering delay as the period of time from the moment the user initiates a print command until the printer prints the document or print job. (It should be noted that other factors may contribute to the delay; however, the rendering factor can be significant.) Further, each time a print job is printed it is re-rendered, even if the print job has not changed or if only minor changes have been made.